January 17, 2013

Moldavian Y-chromosomes

The most salient feature is probably the absence of E-V13 (which is modal in Balkan populations) in Ukrainians. The position of Moldavians in the MDS plot of haplogroup frequencies is as expected, with a clear differentiation of "southern" populations from Italy, Greece/Albania, and Anatolia, and "northern" ones from the west Balkans (ex-Yugoslavs) and eastern Europe: Moldavians occupy an intermediate position along this second group of populations.

PLoS ONE 8(1): e53731. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053731

Paleo-Balkan and Slavic Contributions to the Genetic Pool of Moldavians: Insights from the Y Chromosome

Alexander Varzari et al.

Moldova has a rich historical and cultural heritage, which may be reflected in the current genetic makeup of its population. To date, no comprehensive studies exist about the population genetic structure of modern Moldavians. To bridge this gap with respect to paternal lineages, we analyzed 37 binary and 17 multiallelic (STRs) polymorphisms on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome in 125 Moldavian males. In addition, 53 Ukrainians from eastern Moldova and 54 Romanians from the neighboring eastern Romania were typed using the same set of markers. In Moldavians, 19 Y chromosome haplogroups were identified, the most common being I-M423 (20.8%), R-M17* (17.6%), R-M458 (12.8%), E-v13 (8.8%), R-M269* and R-M412* (both 7.2%). In Romanians, 14 haplogroups were found including I-M423 (40.7%), R-M17* (16.7%), R-M405 (7.4%), E-v13 and R-M412* (both 5.6%). In Ukrainians, 13 haplogroups were identified including R-M17 (34.0%), I-M423 (20.8%), R-M269* (9.4%), N-M178, R-M458 and R-M73 (each 5.7%). Our results show that a significant majority of the Moldavian paternal gene pool belongs to eastern/central European and Balkan/eastern Mediterranean Y lineages. Phylogenetic and AMOVA analyses based on Y-STR loci also revealed that Moldavians are close to both eastern/central European and Balkan-Carpathian populations. The data correlate well with historical accounts and geographical location of the region and thus allow to hypothesize that extant Moldavian paternal genetic lineages arose from extensive recent admixture between genetically autochthonous populations of the Balkan-Carpathian zone and neighboring Slavic groups.

4 comments:

This is not a research paper… is probably commanded Russian propaganda: “This work was supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Education”…

They don’t care about genetics – as they are rushing to mix in history and linguistics: “Our focus was on the Moldavian and Romanian populations, due to their presumed biological connections derived from cultural similarities”.

And: “Thus, sharing nearly the same language is not accompanied by specific genetic similarity between Moldavians and Romanians”.

Changing communism with dictator censorship didn’t do any good to the Russians and to the populations still under occupation.

Interesting, Moldavians were compared with all kind of Balkan populations except Bulgarians.It is a known fact that a large part of the first Christian population of Bessarabia (East Moldova) were Bulgarians, who along with Gagauz, Greeks, Aromuns and other citizens of the Ottoman empire came as population exchange with the Tartars and Nogays in 18-19 c. Some of them got Romanianised or Russified, plus mixed marriages, so you can't bet who are the real Vlachs in Moldova.

I am not sure you could tell apart the Bulgarian admixture element from the Romanian element even with a Bulgarian reference included. Look at the Dodecad World datasheet. Even with K13, the Bulgarians and the Romanians are very close to each other.

This is not a surprise, Romanians are the romanized part of the same Balkan population and lived together with the Bulgarians until their gradual northward movement in the late Medieval times (their presence was already significant North from the Danube in the XII. century, but many of them still lived in the Southern side even in the XIII.)

The two populations are not identical of course, but they are close enough to be very hard to separate as admixture elements.

Yes, there were no significant mass migrations in the past 2000 years... The invaders imposed their languages and disappeared... so neighbour populations are closely related. The Hungarians are most likely magyarized Romanians.

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